The Brookhaven leader., 1887-10-06

disastrous result. One OF these Is the
protective system, which makes us pay
more for what we buy-that others may
grow rich, - and receive less for what We
sell. Another is, the large taxation for
national purposes larger than the needs
of the GOvernment--and the eXpendi-
ture of an undue proportion of it on
other more favored sections. These are
some of the causes, which | think can
not be removed now. We can only try,
with hopes of success hereafter.
But this alone would not make the
disastrous results, which we see all
around us.
THERE ARE OTHER CAUSES,
here at home, and which we can remove
if we only knew how, and had the forti.
tude and seif-denial to adopt the rene
dies in our reach. One of these causes,
and very potent one when the aggre
gate result is noticed is the fact that we
have now no employment for female
labor.
The progress of invention, has been
such that the results of wOman's work
in the old line, have become so cheap,
that it looks like waste of time to un
dertake to produce them at home.
Calico at five cents yard, domestic at
eight, and osnaburgs at ten, and other
common cloths, once made at home, are
so cheap that we cannot or will not
make them. So of many other thirgs
made by men-as axe handles, names,
collars, single-treeS, wagon-bodies, plows,
wagon axles, and wagons themseIveo
All this cEeapness is very well, but tor
the sad fact that we have not found
other suitable employment for our wo-
men and our men. / never thought of
this till my attention was called to it by a
very intelligent friend, and prudent man,
the Hon. John G. Lucas, of kosciusko.
But more of this hereafter.
Another great cause of our depression
| is that
OUR AGRICULTURAL METHODS
are both more expensive and less efficient
than they ought to be. We use none or
but little of the labor saving nipple
ments of husbandry. We employ more
human labOr-the most expensive of all
labOr-fo- the same results than any
other people in the world. 1t is wasted
it is made to compete with animal labor.
As | think this is big truth, will
somewhat enlarge on it. With our
present tools and appliances, man
will ordinarily cultivate fifteen acres
ten in cotton and five in corn. With prop
er appliances he ought, with but lutte
extra labor in hoeing, cultivate twice
that amount.
Next, we cultivate land in way that
it produces a bale of cotton to four
acres sometimes five), and from seven
to fifteen bushels of corn TO the acre
Whoever does this, and does no more,
will be pauper all his days. Next we
confine our agriculture mostly to those
products which demand most of human
labor, as cotton and corn; emitting, in
a large degree, grain, the grasses and
stock, which require but little of hu-
man labor. Now here are the causes,
in my judgment.
WHAT is THE REMEDY?
| can tell you the remedy in general
terms; but | cannot show you the very
path we must tread and how 20 walk in
it safely and wisely. If | see a sick
man, can tell you that he needs medi-
cine ;but if you ask me what particular
medicine he needs, | am ignorant; for |
never learned either pathology or thera-
peutics. So | can tell you, the farmers
are very sick and growing worse every
day, and that medicine is needed-mOre
fertilizers, better cultivation; more of
animal labor as a substitute for human
labor; but am not an educated farmer
therefore | cannot tell you the precise
way in which these necessary operations
ought to be performed, so as in the end
the new system will be more economical
and more remunerative than the old.
Though raised on farm and once
familiar with most farming operations,
like most other farmers got my ideas
from the old system, when we cultivated
rich, fresh lands. The last furrOw |
ever run, was on land which would then
produce near a bale of cotton to the
acre, or thirty bushels of corn; and the
same land now would not produce more
than than bale of cotton to four or five
acres, and corn to the amount OF ten or
fifteen bushels. For, you will remem-
Der, as most Carroll county people do),
that / went into another business
wherein money made by farmers was
translated into the pockets of the non
producers. However the farmer In
those days had more left for his own
use than he seems to have now.
Whoever viii. travel over Mississippi
as | have done, will see for himself, the
waste and deterioration of our once fer
tile lands. In fact We are now in that
unhappy era through which all old
countries have passed, wherein we find
our lands exhausted, and have as yet
not learned how to restore them, econo-
mically and quickly. We may learn